This is a joint giveaway between Natural Parents Network and many other natural parenting sites. You may enter for all of the giveaways at one site only. Please find the section marked “Win it!” for the mandatory entry and optional bonus entries.

Have you finished your holiday shopping? The NPN Holiday Gift Guide is a great opportunity to complete your gift-giving purchases for family and friends, while supporting many naturally-minded small businesses. The companies who have provided items for giveaway are almost exclusively made up of small businesses or work-at-home families.

Please stop back to enter the giveaway. The Rafflecopter entry system will be live November 1 on this post (and on every post participating in the Gift Guide). Please visit some of the other review posts listed below and read about the fabulous companies offering giveaways in the Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide.

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Please continue reading to learn more about Stubby Pencil Studio, which is offering our readers a giveaway of a box of eco friendly art supplies valued at $60.

About Stubby Pencil Studio

Stubby Pencil Studio is an online shop specializing in quality, earth friendly art materials, school supplies, and unique gifts for children. The company was founded by Kate who, inspired by her twin girls, continues to run it today. Literally everything in my daughter’s collection of art supplies comes from Stubby Pencil Studio and it’s a company I have remained loyal to for a number of reasons. Not only are the items Kate sells high quality and mindfully sourced, but they’re truly non toxic and safe. I love knowing that if Annabelle sticks her paint brush in her mouth during the creative process, what she’s swallowing is plant based – even gluten free and vegan!

Another thing that keeps me coming back is the incredible customer service. I’ll tell you a little story: my friend Nicole and I placed orders for art materials together a few times, so that we could share shipping. Because we were both ordering, our orders were rather large, and I received an email from Kate shortly after I placed one. She had a coupon code available that I hadn’t heard about and therefore hadn’t used. I had already paid for my order, but without my even asking, she refunded 15% of my money anyway. I was already hooked because of the great products, but that interaction sealed the deal. It’s abundantly clear that Kate is among those rare business owners who truly love what they do, care about their customers, and always remain true to their own business ethics. When it comes to items Kate carries I won’t buy anywhere else!

About Stubby Pencil Studio’s Eco Friendly Art Materials

For the lucky winner of this giveaway, Stubby Pencil Studio is offering a fantastic selection of goodies for you and/or your little artist, or for holiday gift giving. The package includes: a watercolor set, a box of FSC certified colored pencils, vegan and gluten free sidewalk chalk, a set of Glob natural blends paints, a sweet little holiday bag of crayon rocks, and even a set of four amazing, eco friendly highlighters that are great for any school aged child or adult. My favorite artist, two and a half year old Annabelle, and I have been enjoying all of these for the past few weeks and they are awesome!

In the past, we have used and loved the Alpino Baby Pencils. Now that she’s just over two and a half, my daughter has developed an interest in letters and has been creating increasingly more deliberate and detailed drawings, so I was ready to offer her a set of standard sized pencils to replace her old ones. As I expected, these were a hit! Made from FSC Certified California Incense-cedar wood, they feel amazing in your hands and are such a beautiful sight, too. They’re the perfect colored pencil! The colors are rich and we’ve had no problems with breakage or anything else at all.

As a former Montessori early childhood teacher, I have extensive experience with watercolors, and I have to tell you: I was never too crazy about them as a material for the youngest children. Of course all art materials are messy, and that’s okay – wonderful even. The thing with watercolors is that they tend to be frustratingly messy. There’s a fine line between wet enough to work properly and so wet that the colors are running into one another, and it’s not a line that preschoolers have an easy time walking. It’s a bummer when you’re trying to paint and your colors are running all over the place and mixing when you don’t mean for them to. It’s tough to remember to rinse your brush every time you want to switch colors, too. I seriously love these watercolors, though. The cakes of paint are much larger than on your standard craft store set of children’s watercolors, and the white space between them is larger as well, which means that even if things get real and there’s paint running all over, it’s harder for the colors to mix accidentally. Because the colors are so bright and the surface area so great, it’s also easy to see when you forget to rinse the brush, and there’s not nearly so irreversible a mess as with other sets when this happens either.

These paints from Glob are the only thing my daughter used prior to her introduction to watercolors a few weeks back, and we love them! They come in little packets of powder that you can mix with water to the desired thickness. There are so many things I love about them, too! The colors all come from food and plant sources and they smell wonderful. They’re not edible in the sense that they’re made to be eaten, but there’s absolutely nothing in them that I would worry about my toddler eating. I also love that you can mix only as much as you need, so there are no big containers to store. It’s great to be able to decide on the thickness of the paint, and alter it to suit your project. The powder is useful for coloring other things, like homemade play dough, too. My daughter has always been big on putting things in her mouth, and I knew when I gave her something to paint with, she would inevitably be tasting it, so I have always been incredibly grateful for Glob paints. I’ll never forget the first time I turned my back when she was painting. I went to wash something at the sink and by the time I turned around again, she had gulped down the entire dish! I was so glad that I had chosen her first paints carefully, and I still think they’re pretty wonderful!

Kate also sells the most perfect little bamboo paint brushes that are just the right size for small hands. Annabelle is using one of hers in the photo above.

We love this organic, veggie sidewalk chalk! It’s vegan, wheat free, sugar free, and lead and preservative free. Even though it’s not intended as food, it’s safe enough to eat, so there’s no need to worry about letting little ones explore and create with all five of their senses. The colors are fantastic, but I will say some of them aren’t quite as vivid as those found in conventional sidewalk chalk. I prefer more natural, muted colors to fluorescents anyhow, but everyone has different preferences. Either way, I feel like it’s well worth choosing this chalk over any other simply because of its ingredients. It’s the perfect size and shape for little hands, too! Not only does Annabelle love it, but so do our neighbors, who have loved drawing with her in our driveway.

I’ve mentioned before how wonderful crayon rocks are for developing the pincer grasp in young children, but we also love them for their portability and beauty. I always keep a little bag of them in my purse as something to do when we find ourselves stuck waiting someplace. These particular crayons are also made of soy wax and colored with mineral tints, which means I don’t have to worry when my toddler takes a bite out of one. Oops! With my curious girl, I would be much more familiar with the good folks over at Poison Control if it weren’t for Stubby Pencil Studio.

I adore this little holiday set. It comes ready for gifting in a little green drawstring bag, with a ready to fill tag attached.

It’s a bummer to admit, but as I have learned ways to live more sustainably, there are some things I’ve continued to use without even stopping to think that there might be alternatives. Seeing these little beauties was an “aha!” moment for me. I’m a list maker and I love using color to organize my work. I make an effort to avoid plastic consumption and exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) elsewhere in my life, but until I discovered these lovely wooden highlighter pencils, I was still color coding my grocery lists with things I really don’t want anywhere near my kitchen.

I was a tad skeptical about the idea of a highlighter in pencil form, but I love everything about these. The colors are highlighter bright, the pencils are chunky enough to work quickly, but not so chunky that you can’t create a fine line, and since there’s no ink, they can’t bleed through pages. I love the feel of the natural wood, too. I won’t ever go back to plastic highlighters again.

BUY IT!

You can purchase your own art materials and much more at Stubby Pencil Studio. The items on this list add up to a retail value of just under $60, but individual items start at as low as $4.95. For your holiday gift giving, you’ll surely appreciate Kate’s great selection of gifts under $10, too. Shipping is done through the USPS and is based on the size of your order, but starts at $4.95 for small domestic (US) orders.

And just for Natural Parents Network and Vibrant Wanderings readers, Stubby Pencil Studio is giving a 15% discount on all orders from now through November 30th. Enter code SAVE15 during the ordering process. Kate always seems to be offering fun freebies that would make excellent stocking stuffers, too.

Since we’re such Stubby Pencil Studio junkies, I have to give a shout out to some of our other favorite items. The jumbo felt pens are the perfect marker for small hands. The caps go on and off easily, the short but wide shape is easy for little ones to hold, and the colors are beautiful! I love the range of colors in the set, too. We have had ours for well over a year and they’re showing no signs of running out of ink. The rich and smooth colors of the regular (not rock shaped, that is) soy wax crayons are a treat, and the beeswax crayons, which come in a perfect little cloth bag, are irresistible! They are the only crayon for which I think the word luxurious applies. I haven’t been displeased with a single thing from this shop, actually. Kate seems to have a knack for finding high quality materials you and your families will love!

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a box of art materials from Stubby Pencil Studio, enter by leaving a comment and using our Rafflecopter system below. (Rafflecopter will be live November 1-25).

The winner will receive their own box of eco-friendly colored pencils, preschool watercolor set, box of natural blends paint, bag of veggie sidewalk chalk, holiday bag of crayon rocks, and set of eco highlighters. Contest is open worldwide, anywhere the US Postal Service Ships.

Our Rafflecopter entry system is now open.

MANDATORY ENTRY: In the box provided in the first Rafflecopter entry, tell us where you would have your prize shipped if you are one of the winners. You must enter your name and email address while leaving a comment in the Rafflecopter system for your entry to count.

Leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses in Rafflecopter are not made publicly visible. Please leave the same valid email address in your mandatory comment so we can verify entries.

This is part of a larger giveaway hosted by Natural Parents Network. You may enter the whole giveaway at one site only, and we’ll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do visit and enjoy all of the participating sites!

Please note that each entrant can win only one prize, and NPN will be randomly assigning prizes to the winners. One of the giveaway questions asks which are your top five prizes so we can try to match winners to their preferences.

BONUS ENTRIES:
See the Rafflecopter entry system for bonus entries to increase your chance of winning after completing the mandatory entry. All bonus entries are entered directly into Rafflecopter. Give it a try, and email sponsorship {at} naturalparentsnetwork.com or leave a comment if you have any questions!

Thank you for your interest in the Natural Parents Network Gift Guide! We invite you to read the reviews of other participating bloggers and return to enter the giveaway between November 1 and 25. Many of the giveaway items are open worldwide!

Here are the participating sites and companies. (Reviews go live between October 25 and October 31, and all links will be live by November 1.) We’ve included any coupon codes the companies have offered so you can get your holiday shopping under way!

From Rock Paper Tree via Vibrant Wanderings — Win a $50 gift certificate good toward handcrafted items made with precious metals, crystals, and gemstones
Shop now with coupon code TEN10TEN and get 10% off your purchase through November 25, 2012!

From The Enchanted Cupboard via Hybrid Rasta Mama — Win a $20 Gift Certificate to spend on wooden toys and dolls, custom wedding cake toppers, and more!
Shop now with coupon code NPN and get 10% off your purchase through November 25, 2012!

From LeoandLola via Firmly Planted — Win a $50 Gift Card to spend on custom onesies, t-shirts, dresses, and many upcycled items!
Shop now with coupon code NPNFREE and get free domestic shipping through November 25, 2012!

From KR Dyeworks viaDownside Up And Outside In — Win a $25 gift certificate to purchase handpainted yarn, knitting patterns, or handknit shawls and scarves!
Shop now with coupon code NPN20 and get 20% off your order November 1-30, 2012!

From Dysfunction Designs via The Hippie Housewife — Win a $20 Gift Certificate to buy handmade necklaces and bracelets for women and men.
Shop now with coupon code NATGIFTS and get 5% off all orders through December 31, 2012!

From doTERRA via MomeeeZen — Win a $20 gift card to spend on essential oils & a free phone consultation with Patti Tinholt to help you learn which Essential Oils are right for you!
Shop now and for any purchases over $100, receive $50 towards your next purchase.

From RainbowSouffle via A Little Bit of All of It — Win a $20 Gift Certificate to spend on a doll ring sling, handmade toys, costume items, and more!
Shop now with coupon code FREESHIP and get free shipping on any item through November 25, 2012!

Disclosure: Our reviewer received a sample product
for review purposes.
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We try to seek out only products we think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If we don’t like a product, we won’t be recommending it to you.
See our full disclosure policy here.

Having good quality art supplies is sooo important!! Especially in a preschool where cheap quality art supplies wear out too fast and get expensive. Can’t wait for my son to start doodling everywhere too! :)